


All of This Has Happened Before

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: Character Study, Childhood Memories, Cuddling & Snuggling, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Injury, Major Character Injury, Memories, Multi, OT3, Post-Series, Waiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 12:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9180934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: While waiting for word on Eliot, Parker thinks over her new responsibilities, and remembers the first time she saw the boy who would become Alec Hardison.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InklingDancer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InklingDancer/gifts).



> I was intrigued by your ER prompt, but the story ended up taking on a life of its own. I hope you like it!
> 
> (Please note, the intended recipient of this gift was tagged incorrectly at first. Apologies to both InklingDancer and V_Vulpes.)

Nate and Sophie hadn’t left right away after the night he’d proposed. There were arrangements to be made and conversations to be had – mostly between Nate and Parker on those parts of being a mastermind none of them had ever stopped to consider.

Some of the most important conversations they had were about Eliot, and the things Parker would have to face being in charge of one of the most efficient human weapons in the world. “He’s going to get hurt,” Nate had cautioned her. “You can’t stop that. It’s the nature of the job – he sees it as his responsibility to take the bullet for the rest of us.”

When he did get hurt, it would be her job to see that he got proper medical attention, that he didn’t crawl off somewhere to lick his wounds like an animal. That meant hospitals, and reminding Eliot that he was part of a family now, with people who loved him and relied on him and would give him the time he needed to recover properly.

What Nate hadn’t told her – or maybe he had, but she hadn’t understood what he was really trying to say at the time – was how to deal with feeling like it was all her fault. She was in charge now – she made the calls. How could the fact that Eliot was in surgery, surrounded by people who didn’t know if they were competent enough to fix what those hired thugs had broken in him, not be her fault?

Hardison settled into the seat next to her and put his arm up. Parker turned automatically into his side, cuddling into the familiar warmth and scent as his arm came back down and hugged her in close. “He’s gonna be okay, Mama,” the hacker said softly, kissing her hair.

Parker let the words wash over her, keeping her focus on breathing in the scent of his clothes and skin. The words were something people said to each other to keep from going crazy, from losing hope. She’d figured that out years ago.

 _”A hospital ER is a good last resort. Just complain of a stomach ache and you'll spend all night waiting to be seen.”_ It was one of the tricks you picked up if you spent any time at all on the streets. Parker had used it a lot as a teenager and more successfully than most once she figured out where the exam rooms were that stayed largely unused on average nights.

An emergency room much like this one was where she first really came to know Nate Ford as somebody other than the investigator who first forced her to up her game. Eliot had been telling the truth about word traveling fast as the tragedy that took Nate’s son spiraled out into a nightmare he would be years recovering from, but Parker had spent weeks of her life watching their mastermind as hope became desperation and desperation turned into blackest despair.

 _I saw you too_ , she thought, snuggling in closer to Hardison and enjoying the feel of his arm tightening around her automatically. It was Chicago, when she was seventeen. She hadn’t known who he was, of course, or how the fabric of their lives would end up so completely and perfectly intertwined, but Parker remembered seeing a small boy clutching an older woman’s hand one cold January night.

She’d thought at first they were like her – seeking shelter against the unseasonable cold – but after watching the small boy for an hour and hearing him cough, she understood that the child who would grow up to be her Alec was very sick.

He’d told Eliot it was rheumatic fever – when the hitter had started training all of them to be able to defend themselves, part of the process had been long interrogations about their health, habits and medical history. Parker distinctly remembered one of the nurses – the one that kept talking to Hardison’s Nana about things like ‘insurance’ and co-payments – saying the word tuberculosis more than once. It was a word that stuck with her because it was a Dark and Scary word, and the nurse had also used the word ‘isolation’, which had made Hardison’s Nana look very worried.

Hardison kissed her hair again. “I hope you’re not beating yourself up in there.”

Startled, she looked up at him. The hacker tapped his forehead with his free hand. “You and Nate – you think very loudly. You feel like sharing? I’m told I’m a good listener.” 

He was a good listener – it was one of the things she loved most about him. Some people were painful to sit with – she always felt like they were pushing at her with invisible hands, trying to force her to talk whether she wanted to or not. Hardison, she had learned early on, could wait until the heat death of the universe if she needed him to, and do it in perfect silence.

“I was thinking about you, actually,” she said finally, pulling free of his hug and straightening up in her chair. “When you were little and your Nana took you to the Emergency Room. You told Eliot you had rheumatic fever, but the tiny nurse told your Nana it was tuberculosis.”

Parker actually saw the shiver travel the length of Hardison’s spine, just as she read how spooked he suddenly was in his eyes. None of that was in his voice, however, as he said, “They were trying to figure out a way to get the insurance to cover my treatment. Nurse G figured that if they could sell the doctors on it being something I had to be isolated for the insurance company might be more inclined to pay the bill.” He paused. “How did you..?”

She really did intend to tell him the whole story, but almost as if the universe was protesting the sharing of her secret, Eliot’s surgeon appeared in front of them at that moment. “He’s in recovery,” the man said as they both came immediately to their feet. “I’m not sure I even want to know what this man went through, but we stabilized him and fixed everything that could be fixed.”

Parker gave the man her full attention because she knew that’s what Nate would have done, but she quickly realized she didn’t know what questions to ask beyond, “How long do you think he’s going to be here?” which of course this man wasn’t going to tell her. Not right now, not after hours with his hands in parts of Eliot’s body that hands were never intended to go.

He did try to suggest that they go home and come back to visit Eliot in the morning, which of course wasn’t going to happen. Parker appreciated that he appeared smart enough to quickly realize this – which was a good trait in any doctor that was charged with treating the hitter.

“I wish there was a way to make this all easier,” Hardison said, once they were finally at their teammate’s bedside. Eliot was still out to the world – most of his blood pooling in livid bruises against too-pale skin. Parker knew that under the blankets and bandages were at least three broken ribs and the after-effects of a collapsed lung. 

_They’re going to be talking about therapies,_ Parker recalled. Nate had cautioned her about spacing out jobs so that Eliot would have time to recover properly. _”Be better than me about that,”_ he’d said. _”You have to take better care of him than I did.”_

Which was a tall order, but one Parker was determined to fulfill. _I won’t be alone either_ she thought, watching as Hardison took Eliot’s hand in his – letting their partner know in the only way he could that they were there, that he was safe… _that everything would be okay._

“It shouldn’t be easier,” she said finally, moving to the other side of the bed and taking Eliot’s other hand in hers. “It’s hard because it matters.” She squeezed Eliot’s hand. “What he does to keep us safe matters. If it stops being hard it means we’re taking him for granted.”

Pausing until she was certain she had Hardison’s full attention, Parker continued, “Eliot wouldn’t take us for granted – we’re going to make sure he understands this goes both ways.”

Hardison only nodded. Parker hadn’t expected an argument – but she was grateful to have her expectations confirmed. This was a part of their future. Emergency rooms and hospitals were going to be a part of their future.

Hacker and thief settled in to keep vigil over their fallen knight.


End file.
